I have been trying to get rid of the dust in my 5D sensor a few times already. Some of it left and some not. I usually shot open apertures so I'm not really affected by it but I would like to know if there is any magic trick or tool that gets rid of more dust than anything else in the market.
After seeing the "labs" use a can of air, after shooting some out of the hose first, and making sure the air can is level, I do that now on the 5D every couple weeks. I wet cleaned once, and got rid of some dirt that Canon didn't get, but I couldn't get it all. Who knows, maybe I'll send it into Canon again once the season is over.
I bought Eclipse and sensor swabs and sensor brush with rocket blower from copperhill images. I used sensor brush/rocket blower combination first and guess what..sensor is clean!!
The reason I am thinking of a mkII. I have never had my IDmkIII cleaned & in the same period my 5D has been cleaned thrice & I change lenses on the mkIII more frequently. 40D was never cleaned in the 18 months I had it. I became so fed up I purchased a 30D for my 100 macro so lens changing is down to a minimum & my cost will be reclaimed in a year.
That's the only reason I don't have a 5D, having to try and keep
it's larger sensor clean. My 30D was always dirty with stuff
always stuck to the sensor, it's the main reason I upgraded to the 40D,
since having the 40D all I've had to do is use a rocket blower.
I use Visible Dust's sensor swaps and their Artic Butterfly (dry cleaning) with great success on my 5D. Between the Sensor clean and the VDust Plus solution, I've always gotten the spots off.
LightShow wrote:
That's the only reason I don't have a 5D, having to try and keep
it's larger sensor clean. My 30D was always dirty with stuff
always stuck to the sensor, it's the main reason I upgraded to the 40D,
since having the 40D all I've had to do is use a rocket blower.
How often do you use a rocket blower ?
And also, how do you do it ? Put in manual cleaning mode and blow it with the camera upside down ?
Not to answer the question for him, but I'd like to offer my opinion on the matter...
I use the rocket blower roughly every half dozen lens swaps, or whenever I see dust in an image. I feel LS's pain, I sold my first 5d a long time ago for this very reason. For some reason it doesn't bother me at all anymore, maybe because cleaning the sensor has become a quick and easy routine, and I'm no longer surprised by it.
The way I do it is in shutter priority, set for 8 or 10 seconds. I remove the lens, blast all around the mirror and mirror box maybe a dozen times. Then I press the shutter release and blast the sensor as many times as I can while counting in my head. I do it so often I don't even want to go in the menu to enable mirror lockup or sensor cleaning. A sad story, one time I accidentally touched the focus screen with the blower tip and scratched it, so now I rest the red nozzle on the body while blowing for support. Delete your 255 image and continue shooting.
I've found the best method is a combination approach. First, the rocket blower (although to be honest, this tends to just move dust around).
Then I use a sensor brush to get large particles out of the way, charging the bristles with a can of compressed air then very lightly moving across the sensor, barely touching it.
At this point, I can use one of two methods, the wet swab method, or the LensPen method. I generally prefer the latter. At first I was doubtful but the SensorKlear does a really good job--I think it actually works better than Eclipse+swabs. It is certainly faster and less messy. One tip when using any LensPen product--after twisting the cap on the tip to "recharge" it, tap the pen on the edge of a table to remove the excess carbon. This reduces the chance that you will leave any residue.
Also, never mix LensPens...if you use one for a lens, don't use it on the sensor, and vice versa. You can use three--one for your lenses, one for the sensor, and one for the viewfinder. (Don't bother cleaning the LCD cover with one--there's too much oil/dirt for one pen to absorb.)
I bought a VisibleDust Sensor Loupe 7X. I use it with eclipse and a swab. This is the best way to clean a sensor when you can see every dust bunny, lint or other crud that finds it's way into your camera. I was so tired of cleaning, shooting at F/22 and downloading to find that the sensor was still dirty. This has cuts down the cleaning time to a fraction of what it use to take.
Since I'm nearsighted, all I do is take off my glasses and shine a flashlight into the mirror box. I can see everything very, very well this way. My eyes have built-in macro capability.
fmikio wrote:
How often do you use a rocket blower ?
And also, how do you do it ? Put in manual cleaning mode and blow it with the camera upside down ?
Yes, I basically do it before every major outing, and after any outing that was windy/dusty that I had to swap lenses.
with the lens mount facing down...
-I blow it out when it's in the normal 'ready to take pictures' mode, iow mirror down.
which removes dust from the mirror surface and the viewfinder.
-I then do the same thing with the mirror locked up. being careful when aiming at the shutter to not get too close nor blow too hard. which removes dust from the shutter and back of the mirror
-And once more when in manual cleaning mode, which removes any dust from around or on the sensor.
I've seen a few pics of other photogs camera mirror boxes and they were rather dusty, mine is more or less dust free.
I even take the time to clean the back end of each lens, using a flashlight/torch to see any dust that could make it's way into the mirror box.
I take this 4N4L approach to cleaning the whole camera at least once a year.
